Snip it, and Rip it (rip it good!)

My last skirt for therefashioners2016 challenge at Portia Lawrie’s site , was one of those ideas that kept morphing into something else, mainly due to the amount of fabric yielded by the jeans.

 

From the beginning, I had wanted to create a plaid or check using strips of different shades of denim. So, throwing any idea of pattern cutting by the wayside, I got out a pair of my trusty old shears, and began to snip and rip. I have to say, I find a weird satisfaction in the sound of fabric ripping (probably drove my husband nuts while he was trying to hear the TV).

After snipping and ripping two pairs of thrifted jeans (a global project – 1 bought in Wales, 1 in California), I realized I wasn’t going to be able to create a piece of fabric to fit around my hips with all the seam allowances taken into account.

I rifled through my refashioning heap, and found a skinny pair (unfortunately), then took a peak in my son’s thrift store donation bag – bingo, 1 more pair!

By now, my husband had given up on TV, and I needed something to give me a kick up the bum to get going with this project…..Gogol Bordello (Pura Vida Conspiracy) – that did the trick!

I stitched a panel of stripes, and liked it, but I was still sold on plaid. So, I made another panel adding the horizontal strips – it wasn’t exactly what I wanted….hmmm, time for some thinking nutrition (strong coffee and a mini Bounty)….it morphed into a wavy plaid.

Despite the extra jeans, these 2 panels wouldn’t be big enough, so I used leftover leg pieces to make side panels – cutting and pinning till they fitted.

The top edge was finished off with a scrap of the lightest weight jeans, and I added metal buttons (from my stash) on the side, and one pocket on the back.

Nearly done, except it’s a little too short for me. I did the last few rips, and managed to get 4 panels to use as a hem border, fraying out the bottom.